After the Senate gave approval to its budget plan early Friday morning, Sens. Rob Portman, Ohio Republican, and Jeanne Shaheen, New Hampshire Democrat, got a version of their energy efficiency legislation passed by voice vote. The measure, passed when only Mr. Portman and Ms. Shaheen were on the floor, includes provisions exempting certain water heaters from pending Department of Energy regulations, and requires federal agencies to develop an implementation strategy for employing more energy-efficient technology, among other items. Mr. Portman said the bill has garnered widespread support and is part of an energy plan for the country “that can help...

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker are running first and second in an early look at the 2016 GOP presidential primary in New Hampshire, according to a Suffolk University poll released Thursday. Mr. Bush is the first choice for about 19 percent of likely GOP primary voters, followed by Mr. Walker at 14 percent and Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky at 7 percent. Real estate mogul Donald Trump, who recently announced he was forming an exploratory committee....

Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin, a possible candidate for president in 2016, told a private gathering of New Hampshire Republicans this month that he supported a pathway to legal status — but not citizenship — for undocumented immigrants in the United States, according to the chairwoman of the state’s Republican Party. The chairwoman, Jennifer Horn, described Mr. Walker’s statements on Thursday after The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post reported that Mr. Walker had endorsed eventual citizenship for those immigrants, which many Republicans oppose. A spokeswoman for Mr. Walker, Kirsten Kukowski, disputed those reports about Mr. Walker embracing a...

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker told a private dinner of New Hampshire Republicans this month that he backed the idea of allowing undocumented immigrants to stay in the country and to eventually become eligible for citizenship, a position at odds with his previous public statements on the matter.

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker may be on the verge of burning himself down before he actually gets started, given what is now becoming something of a circus regarding his actual stance on immigration. According to this new Wall Street Journal report, it’s quite possible a supporter of Jeb Bush, or another candidate went to the media regarding Walker’s recent comments at a private GOP dinner, it doesn’t matter. With three sources now (anonymously) on record, he appears to have Walkered himself right into this one. If his name becomes synonymous with waffling on a critical issue like immigration, his next...

Potential 2016 candidate Scott Walker’s staff is denying that he endorsed amnesty for illegal immigrants during a closed-door dinner with Republican donors in New Hampshire.“Governor Walker has been very clear that he does not support amnesty and believes that border security must be established and the rule of law must be followed,” said Kirsten Kukowski, the spokesman he recently hired from the Republican National Committee.“He does not support citizenship for illegal immigrants, and this story line is false,” she said. The denials follow a March 26 report in The Wall Street Journal, which said that Walker told New Hampshire...

WASHINGTON (AP) — A dispute over Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s position on immigration erupted on Thursday, highlighting the Republican’s struggle to appeal to conservatives on the explosive issue as he prepares to launch a Republican presidential bid. The two-term governor has consistently opposed what he calls “amnesty” for immigrants in the country illegally, but his definition of amnesty has evolved. In a recent closed-door meeting with top New Hampshire Republicans, Walker said such immigrants should be allowed to stay in the country legally.

So, to recap: The Wall Street Journal claimed yesterday that Walker told an audience of New Hampshire Republicans that he supported a path to citizenship, which was â€” supposedly â€” a flip-flop from what Walkerâ€™s been telling reporters lately about opposing â€śamnesty.â€ť Except that itâ€™s not a flip-flop, as I tried to explain. Walkerâ€™s supported a path to citizenship for nearly 15 years. As recently as this month, when asked by Chris Wallace if he can imagine a path to citizenship if illegals paid a penalty first, he replied, â€śI believe thereÂ’s a way you can do that.â€ť No...

House Speaker Shawn Jasper, R-Hudson, has removed a key Republican from the House Budget Finance Committee after she questioned tax increases and priorities in the proposals.State Rep. Laurie Sanborn, R-Bedford, was removed from the committee just before the vote to approve the bills due to her refusal to support the proposal.After rumors began circulating that she was removed from the committee, Jim Rivers, the director of communications for the Speaker, issued a statement saying that state Rep. David Hess, R-Hooksett, and state Rep. Ken Weyler, R-Kingston, would be put on the committee.“The budget process is a multi-step process that...

U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen shamed herself with a vote that no one in New Hampshire should ever forget. That day, to her eternal discredit, she voted against a bill to help sex trafficking victims - on the order of her biggest campaign donor. The bill was the Justice for Victims of Sex Trafficking Act. Among its bipartisan list of cosponsors are Republican Sen. Kelly Ayotte and Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. The bill would create a sex trafficking victim assistance fund, financed by revenue from criminal fines. Just before the bill was to come up for a vote, the abortion...

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX)[95%] will today announce he is running for President. At our very first RedState Gathering, Ted Cruz showed up. He was the Solicitor General of Texas. I did not know him, but he’d gone to law school with a friend and several other friends highly recommended him. He stood on stage to speak along with another guy named Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL)[82%]. Both of them dazzled the crowd in Atlanta. They both got repeated standing ovations. They both took questions from the crowd and never made a misstep. I hope they will both return to Atlanta this...

After spending two days in the state on Sunday and Monday, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz will return on March 27 to speak to the Young America’s Foundation “New England Freedom Conference” at the Radisson Hotel in Nashua. The two-day event is expected to attract young conservative from throughout the region for two days of speeches and meetings. Cruz will then return on April 17 as one of at least a dozen likely Republican presidential candidates to speak at the New Hampshire Republican Party’s “First-in-the-Nation Leadership Summit,” at the Crowne Plaza, also in Nashua. First, Cruz will be in the state...

Ted Cruz came to New Hampshire, but unlike other candidates who talked in Bushian generalities, he talked about his positions on the issues. He won applause when he called for a flat tax and abolishing the Internal Revenue Service, and he said the Affordable Care Act and Common Core curriculum standards should be repealed. He also said he wanted taxes simple enough so they could be done on a postcard.Â Do you hear other candidates talking this way?Â I don't.Â I don't think I've heard a single candidate call for abolishing the IRS, have you? Senator Cruz has spoken at...

(See our earlier story below.)Texas Sen. Ted Cruz has added a major Seacoast GOP event to his schedule when he returns to New Hampshire at the end of next week.The Rockingham County Republican Committee and the Seacoast Republican Women will host a brunch at the Portsmouth Country Club in Greenland, on Saturday, March 28, at 10:30 a.m., with Cruz as the featured speaker.Cruz on Friday, March 27, will appear at a Young AmericaÂ’s Foundation Â“New England Freedom ConferenceÂ” at the Radisson Hotel in Nashua.Cruz was in the state on Sunday and Monday for several stops, including in Barrington, Lincoln and...

Ted Cruz made his first appearance on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” on Wednesday and came out swinging. Cruz offered his account of the recent media blitz over an interaction he had at a rally Sunday morning in New Hampshire. After stating that “the world was on fire,” a little girl in the audience reacted with concern and asked if indeed it was. About the girl’s startled response, Cruz told the panel: “This is blown up in the media. Every reporter has written about it.” “It’s gotten worse and worse. It was first ‘Girl Startled.’ Then it became ‘Girl Terrified.’ By the...

Washington — Ted Cruz was on NBC’s “Late Night with Seth Meyers” Monday talking politics, policy, and presidential bids.Did you know Mr. Meyers is a native of New Hampshire, the first-in-the-nation primary state? Perhaps that’s why he booked the firebrand conservative Texas senator – to preview Senator Cruz’s likely candidacy for the folks back home.So how did Cruz do? Did he hold his own? After all, late night talk TV generally leans left, a la Jon Stewart. In that sense, Cruz might have been worried his appearance was a trap. Indeed, Meyers hit him up front with general questions...

The radical liberal website Raw Story ran a piece on Saturday reporting on a Ted Cruz event in Strafford County, New Hampshire. At one point, Cruz tried to paint a picture of the consequences of a Democratic victory in 2016: “It is now or never,” he explained. “I don’t think we’ve reached the point of no return yet. But we’re close. We are close! And I believe if we go four or eight more years on this same path, we risk losing the greatest country in the history of the world.” “Millions of Americans are realizing this isn’t working,” the...

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, winds up his exploratory presidential campaign weekend in New York tonight - on NBC’s Late Night with Seth Meyers. The appearance, which was not announced by his political staff, concludes a whirlwind trip to South Carolina and New Hampshire. On Saturday afternoon, Cruz started with a speech at the South Carolina National Security Action Summit, followed by a hop to the Granite State Sunday for the “Strafford County Republican Committee Chili and Chat with Sen. Cruz.” Then it was the Grafton County Lincoln Day Dinner and this morning’s "Politics and Eggs" breakfast at the New Hampshire...

CONCORD, N.H. Â— â€¨Republican upstart Scott Walker yesterday was embraced by a rapturous crowd of hundreds of Granite Staters, who roared appreciation for his red-meat foreign and â€¨domestic policy views Â— as he hinted he will be making his candidacy official. Â“WeÂ’ll be back many more times to New Hampshire,Â” he promised. WalkerÂ’s two-day visit came on a swing of early primary states: He was in Iowa last weekend and is headed to South Carolina next. He used his one public appearance at Concord High School to â€¨regale the crowd with tales of his humble upbringing, to blast Common Core...

A New Hampshire ex-official believed to be the first transgender person elected to a state legislature was charged Thursday with calling in a bomb threat to a hospital, police said. Police arrested 31-year-old Stacie Laughton of Nashua on Thursday following the Feb. 27 threat to Southern New Hampshire Medical Center. Police evacuated the building but found no suspicious device. An investigation led police to issue a warrant for Laughton's arrest; the Nashua resident complied.

You have to give a certain amount of credit to politicians who are able to maintain a level of consistency, if nothing else. Stopping in New Hampshire, Jeb Bush was faced with yet another series of questions on the subject which seems to have sunk his prospects with conservatives this cycle. When asked yet again about a possible path to citizenship for illegals and a chance to â€ścome out of the shadowsâ€ť in an orderly fashion, Bush doubled down and let all of you haters out there know that heâ€™s the grown up in the room here. Jeb Bush...

LIVE STREAM Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker was in New Hampshire Saturday as he continues to ponder a possible run for president. Walker is set to speak at the Christa McAuliffe Auditorium at Concord High School around 11:45 a.m. The event is a grassroots training for Walker's possible run for the White House. WMUR.com will stream the event live when it happens. Walker will be a guest on WMUR's CloseUP on Sunday at 10 a.m.

Jeb Bush, making his first visit to New Hampshire as a likely presidential candidate, implicitly criticized his Republican rivals for the nomination for changing their positions on difficult issues. Discussing his support for the Common Core education standards, which are viewed unfavorably by many Republicans, Mr. Bush said, “you don’t abandon your core beliefs” just because a position appears unpopular. “The way I’ve sorted it out is: I think you need to be genuine, I think you need to have a backbone. I think you need to able to persuade people this is a national crisis, this is a national...

Jeb Bush said on Friday that his plan for reforming the nation’s immigration system is “the grown-up plan.” Bush kicked off his first pre-2016 trip to New Hampshire with a visit to the Integra Biosciences manufacturing plant in Hudson, where he took questions from local business leaders. The former Florida governor, whose position on immigration reform has come under criticism from members of his party, once again endorsed “earned legal status” for immigrants who entered the country illegally.

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush told skeptical voters Friday that he would not soften his views on immigration or education to win their backing. On his opening foray into New Hampshire for his likely campaign for the Republican presidential nomination, Bush challenged voters here to spend time learning about the issues and avoid shrill partisan sniping. He said “facts don’t matter” to some of his critics and told his first political audience in the state in 15 years that true leaders do not shrink from their beliefs for political expediency. Bush, the brother of one president and the son of...

Jeb Bush and Scott Walker both land in New Hampshire today — but this is Walker’s state to lose. Bush is all name, Walker is all game. The last time the former Florida governor spent any real time politicking in the Granite State, the Old Man of the Mountain was intact. But time and erosion took their toll. That natural marvel crumbled in 2003, leaving only memories and photos of better days to preserve the legend. Sound familiar, Jeb?

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker says President Barack Obama’s Attorney General nominee, Loretta Lynch, is unfit to be the nation’s top lawyer because of her support for executive amnesty and other positions she’s taken, the governor’s spokeswoman Kirsten Kukowski tells Breitbart News.“Given Loretta Lynch’s failure to commit to protect Americans from the president’s lawless executive overreach, that even he said nearly two dozen times, she is not fit to serve as the nation’s Attorney General,” Kukowski said in an email.Walker is in New Hampshire,the first in the nation primary state,on Friday, meeting with—among other—former Sen. Scott Brown(R-MA)—who narrowly lost to Sen....

Stacie Laughton, the state's first openly transgender legislator who was elected to the House of Representatives and then withdrew her candidacy days later, said Thursday that she is the person responsible for calling in a hoax bomb threat at a local hospital. After spending two weeks receiving treatment at a Vermont hospital for bipolar disorder, Laughton walked into the Nashua Police Department at noon on Thursday and turned herself in on a warrant for the Feb. 27 incident. “I have had a mental illness my whole life, and I guess this was my worst break with it. I was untreated...

Welcome back to the RedState 2016 Presidential Primary Power Rankings! To view all the previous installments of this series, click here. Lots of movement this week, most of which was unjustified and will result in certain members of the voting panel being fired! Without further ado, let’s get right to it! The First Tier 1. Scott Walker (Governor – Wisconsin) (Last week: 1) (Points: 108) Rationale: Walker continues to occupy the catbird’s seat as the most likely consensus candidate to emerge from the field. Walker proved in two national polls that he is running essentially neck and neck with Jeb...

Forty-seven Senate Republicans are signaling in an open letter to Iran and the White House that a deal over Tehran’s nuclear program will be at risk once President Obama leaves office. “It has come to our attention while observing your nuclear negotiations with our government that you may not fully understand our constitutional system,” the senators wrote in the letter, which was first reported by Bloomberg. “Thus, we are writing to bring to your attention two features of our Constitution — the power to make binding international agreements and the different character of federal offices — which you should seriously...

In New Hampshire, where tear duct-draining temperatures and a maze of towering snow banks continue to test even the heartiest winter trouper’s mettle, much of the talk these days centers around wistful plans for tropical getaways. But as growing numbers of Republican politicians from more temperate locales defy all climatic logic to travel to the Granite State this winter, talk of 2016 presidential politics has been picking up, too.

A leading Republican consultant has ranked the top 10 presidential candidates for 2016 while claiming that Texas Sen. Ted Cruz has about the same odds of winning the party’s nomination as former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, The Washington Post reported. The unnamed strategist divided the GOP race for 2016 into "four lanes" — establishment, tea party, social conservative and libertarian, according to the newspaper. Bush and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker are the leading candidates in establishment, the largest lane, while former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee is battling it out with retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum...

ess than a year before the first presidential contests begin, a trio of new NBC News/Marist polls show that the Republican race is wide open in the early nominating states of Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina. In fact, seven different possible Republican candidates get double-digit support in at least one of the states. But only two candidates — former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker — are in double digits in all three states.

If Republican Jeb Bush's political contributions offer any signs, there's little doubt that the former Florida governor plans to seek the 2016 presidential nomination. More than half of the $122,800 Bush contributed Friday is going to candidates and state Republican Party organizations in the four states scheduled to begin the presidential voting next year. The candidates include Sen. Chuck Grassley and Rep. David Young of Iowa, Sen. Kelly Ayotte and Rep. Frank Guinta of New Hampshire, Sen. Tim Scott and Rep. Trey Gowdy of South Carolina, and Rep. Joe Heck of Nevada.

CONCORD, New Hampshire — Penalties for indecent exposure and the legality of abortions are on tap for the New Hampshire House. Lawmakers are scheduled to debate these and several other issues during Wednesday's legislative session, beginning at 10 a.m. A committee recommends passing a bill that would make indecent exposure or lewdness in front of a minor a felony rather than a misdemeanor. By a vote of 10-4, the House Judiciary Committee recommends killing a bill "providing life begins at conception," which would outlaw abortion. Several bills aimed at limiting access to abortions are before the House this session.

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker is the front-runner in a new 2016 Republican presidential preference poll in South Carolina, while U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham is close enough to make it a statistical tie here. But the news is less favorable for Graham in three other early voting states - Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada - where his level of support registers at negligible among GOP voters, totalling at 1 percent and below. The poll, by the conservative Citizens for Responsible Energy Solutions, put Walker is out front in South Carolina but statistically tied with Graham, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and...

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) - Planned Parenthood is suggesting New Hampshire lawmakers replace the state law creating “buffer zones” around facilities that provide abortions rather than repeal it. New Hampshire’s 25-foot buffer zone law has not been enforced since its passage last summer because of a U.S. Supreme Court decision that struck down a similar Massachusetts law. The House Judiciary Committee took testimony Tuesday on a bill to repeal the buffer zone law outright. Its sponsors say the state will face a costly lawsuit if the law remains in place.

State legislators around the country have introduced more than 200 bills aiming to nullify regulations and laws coming out of Washington, D.C., as they look to rein in the federal government. The legislative onslaught, which includes bills targeting federal restrictions on firearms, experimental treatments and hemp, reflects growing discord between the states and Washington, state officials say. “You have a choice,” said Kentucky state Rep. Diane St. Onge (R). “To sit back and not do anything or say anything and let overregulation continue — or you have the alternative choice to speak up about it and say, ‘We know what...

HOUSTON — The political operation of potential 2016 presidential candidate Ted Cruz continued to beef up Monday as a top aide to former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich signed onto the senator’s team. Rick Tyler, Gingrich’s longtime spokesman who served as a top strategist to a super PAC that supported Gingrich’s 2012 presidential campaign, will join Cruz’s campaign-in-waiting to serve as a senior communications adviser. “I am honored to come on board with Sen. Cruz and join the effort to make D.C. listen to the American people,” Tyler said in a statement. “I believe he will emerge as the...

Senator Marco Rubio has hired a coveted former aide to Mitt Romney to oversee his political activities in the Northeast and probably in a New Hampshire campaign, signaling that he is serious about a presidential bid. Jim Merrill, who directed both of Mr. Romney’s New Hampshire primary bids, is joining Mr. Rubio’s political action committee as a senior adviser, a position that would put him at the helm of the Florida senator’s campaign in the first-in-the-nation primary state.

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker leads a host of potential 2016 GOP presidential contenders in a new poll in the early presidential state of New Hampshire out Wednesday. Mr. Walker leads the NH1 automated poll, conducted Feb. 2-3, with 21.2 percent of the vote, followed by former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush at 14.4 percent, Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky at 8.3 percent, and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson at 8.2 percent...........

Gov. Scott Walker's proposed budget calls for essentially removing the public service language from the University of Wisconsin System's mission to focus more on workforce development, according to language released Wednesday morning. The Wisconsin Idea has long been the core philosophy of the UW System, driving campuses to extend their reach into communities and "every family in the state." That mission also is linked to Wisconsin public radio and TV. The Walker budget cuts $5 million in state funding from the public service media. State funding makes up about 10% of the budget for their programming operations, according to a...

In his 2015 budget proposal, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) offers an unusual change amid the details of how and where he proposes spending the state's money. As noted by the watchdog sit PR Watch (and brought to our attention by journalist Abe Sauer), Walker would like to change the statement of purpose and mission for the University of Wisconsin system. Less talk about searching for truth; more talk about meeting the state's workforce needs. Walker's proposal amends the university's mission as follows. (The key here: something added, something removed.)

Republican New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte called out the White House on “Fox News Sunday,” telling them to stop spending so much time worrying about political correctness and more time actually fighting radical Islam. (VIDEO: White House: Not ‘Accurate’ To Call Paris Terrorism ‘Radical Islam’)

A real-life “Home Alone” story of twin 9-year-old brothers in New Hampshire who managed to basically take care of themselves for a third of a year is in part a case of child endangerment, but also, upon closer inspection, a stunning tale of childhood ingenuity. Few would agree with decisions made by the boys’ uncle, who told police he’d stop by every few days while the parents were on a trip in Africa. The parents, Jerusalem and Catherine Monday, left the United States in July, expecting to return in August. But they were delayed in Nigeria for another three months....

DOVER — Health centers across New Hampshire could lose state money for family planning and other services they currently provide under a bill proposed by state Rep. Warren Groen, R-Rochester. In an interview Wednesday, Groen said his bill would bar organizations that perform abortions, refer patients for that procedure or advocate for abortions from receiving any taxpayer money. The state law already prohibits public funding for abortions except in cases of incept, rape and when the mother’s life is in danger. But Groen’s bill would prevent facilities from receiving money for any health care services. “It’s not aimed specifically at...